The Bremoir Lexington is an Ode to 1920s Art Deco Architecture

Art Deco as a creative movement has influenced watches for a good century by now, with some truly spectacular designs under its roaring 1920s canopy. The thing is, most of them follow similar blueprints, be that the Cartier Tank, Jaeger- LeCoultre Reverso, or something more recent like the Fears Archival. They’re rectangular, innately glamorous dress watches. However, the Bremoir Lexington shows that this needn’t always be the case.

That’s because the odd counterpoint to the dominance of rectangle pieces is that Art Deco was never entirely about straight lines. Sure, you can find countless examples of geometric shapes across art, design, and architecture from the period, but that’s far from everything. Just take a look at what might be the most iconic architectural example of Art Deco ever built, the Chrysler Building.

Built in 1930 as the tallest building in the world (if only for 11 months), the Chrysler Building was one of the earlier skyscrapers and a domineering presence on the East Side of Manhattan. Surprisingly, at the time feelings were mixed about the design, with the worse end of the spectrum calling it inane and unoriginal.

That seems crazy these days, as the Chrysler Building is a visual and historical landmark; a building that’s come to define not just the New York skyline, but art deco architecture in a more general way. That’s in large part due to its terraced crown of seven concentric arches with its signature triangular windows – and in that definitive detail, there’s nary a rectangle in sight.

It’s a genuine surprise that more brands haven’t adopted the Chrysler Building as their totem. In fact, Bremoir are really the only one, and their single debut watch, the Lexington – and I doubt we’d have needed to extoll the virtues of the Chrysler Building beforehand to see just how faithful the Lexington is to its Art Deco inspiration.

First, there’s the bezel. The three-stepped shape is a downsized version of the concentrically arched crown of the Chrysler Building, perfectly circular but still a tasteful nod to the architecture. But where are the arches without their windows? Given there’s only so much space on the bezel, those sharp triangles have instead been transformed into the outer hour markers and lumed for low-light readability. Even the minute markers echo the metalwork around the building’s entrance.

So far, so clear. But what really stops the Lexington being some on-the-nose tribute stripping out the key design elements of the Chrysler Building, is that, put simply, it’s a damn lovely watch. The sector dial with its brushed hour ring with gorgeous applied indexes, the 39mm sizing and broad, vintage case shape all add up to a distinctly modern reinterpretation of 1920s style.

Of the variations available (there are four), the standout is by far the combination of blue dial with a copper hour ring. It has all the glamour of an Art Deco dress watch without actually being a dress watch per se. It’s also a whole lot more affordable than getting your hands on a genuine Art Deco period timepiece.

Despite the quality of finishing and a Swiss movement – the solid STP 1-11 calibre – the Bremoir Lexington is priced at a pretty damn tempting $985 (approx. £860). For a watch that’s embraced Art Deco as wholeheartedly as this, there’s nothing in this price range to compare it to. Add a few thousand and maybe.